"
He paused, and thought for a moment.
"But all this," he resumed, rising from his seat, and going to stand
with one arm upon the mantelpiece, "is of course, with me, mere
matter of speculation. There are two allegories, which define
Pessimism and Optimism. First that of Adam and Christ. Adam falls
through eating of the tree of knowledge; in other words, sin only
comes with self-consciousness, sin _is_ the conscious enjoyment of
life. And, according to this creed, it can only be overcome by
abnegation, by the denial of the will to live. Accordingly, Christ
enters the world, and, representing Humanity, as Adam had done,
saves the world by denial, of Himself, even to death. The other
allegory is that of Prometheus. He also represents mankind, and his
stealing of the fire means man's acquirement of a conscious soul,
whereby he makes himself capable of sin. The gods put him in bondage
and torment, representing the subjection to the flesh. But
Prometheus is saved in a different way from Adam; not by
renunciation, but by the prowess of Hercules, that is to say, the
triumphant aspiration of Humanity. Man triumphs by asserting his
right to do so. Self-consciousness he claims as a good thing, and
embraces the world as his birthright.
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